Trump downplays transgender bathroom debate as the issue rips through Congress

President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that he agrees with incoming Rep. Sarah McBride — who is set to become the first transgender member of Congress — that lawmakers should focus on more important issues than which bathrooms transgender people should be allowed to use.

Trump’s comments come amid an ongoing quarrel over whether trans people should be permitted to use restrooms that align with their gender identity in the Capitol building.

The controversy began last month when Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a resolution to prohibit House members and congressional staff from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.” Mace then told reporters the resolution, which has the support of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La, was “absolutely” targeting McBride, who was elected to Congress last month. McBride, a Delaware Democrat, previously described the resolution as an “attempt to misdirect” attention away from other policy priorities.

In a wide-ranging interview with Time magazine, which just named Trump its “Person of the Year”, the president-elect was asked if he agreed with McBride that, as Time phrased it, “we should all be focused on more important issues” than which bathrooms trans people use. Trump replied: “I do agree with that. On that — absolutely.”

McBride and Mace did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Johnson’s spokesperson Taylor Haulsee referred NBC News to the speaker’s prior statement on the issue in which he said that restrooms “are reserved for individuals of that biological sex.”

On Tuesday, the U.S. Capitol Police said they arrested a person accused of assaulting Mace. That evening, Mace said on X that she was “physically accosted at the Capitol tonight by a pro-tr*ns man.” She added in a separate X post that Trump called her after the incident.

A foster care advocate who saw Mace that evening at an event where the lawmaker spoke challenged her account on Wednesday, describing the interaction between Mace and the person she accused of assault as “very normal.”

Prior to saying he agreed with McBride, Trump declined to answer a question about whether he more broadly believes transgender people should be allowed to use the restrooms of their choosing. Currently, 14 states have some form of legal limitations on which bathrooms transgender people can use, according to the LGBTQ think tank Movement Advancement Project.

“I don’t want to get into the bathroom issue,” Trump told Time. “Because it’s a very small number of people we’re talking about, and it’s ripped apart our country, so they’ll have to settle whatever the law finally agrees.”

He continued, “I am a big believer in the Supreme Court, and I’m going to go by their rulings, and so far, I think their rulings have been rulings that people are going along with, but we’re talking about a very small number of people, and we’re talking about it, and it gets massive coverage, and it’s not a lot of people.”

The Supreme Court is not weighing the transgender bathroom issue. It is, however, weighing the constitutionality of a Tennessee law that bans trans minors from obtaining transition-related health care.

Time also asked Trump about his campaign ads that focused on transgender people. In one, the campaign mocked Vice President Kamala Harris’ past support for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgery for inmates. The ad ended with the tagline: “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.”

“Well, it’s true,” Trump told Time. “Trump is for us.”

When pressed further, he said: “I mean, Trump is definitely for us, OK? And us is the vast, vast majority of people in this country. And also, I want to have all people treated fairly. You know, forget about majority or not majority. I want people to be treated well and fairly.”

On the campaign trail, Trump promised he would roll back the Biden administration’s Title IX protections for LGBTQ students if he were re-elected. On Thursday, he appeared less committed to the idea.

“I’m going to look at it very closely. We’re looking at it right now. We’re gonna look at it. We’re gonna look at everything,” he said. “Look, the country is torn apart. We’re gonna look at everything.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com